Grouptivity launched an updated version of its content-sharing tool on Monday. Blog posters can now add a "discuss this" button on the bottom of any post, which will pull up the Grouptivity sharing dialogue to send off the post or article to others. This dialogue allows you to pick from various pieces of media (photos and videos) that you want to share, along with a full text copy of the content. There's also the option to send it off to multiple e-mail addresses, set up read confirmations, and author explanatory messages to your recipients.

If you've ever used Facebook's "share this" feature, you have some idea for what Grouptivity is useful for, although unlike Facebook, Grouptivity allows its users to share interesting Web content via e-mail, IM and even Skype. Besides this embeddable "Discuss this" button, there's also a browser bookmarklet that will let you share with friends anything you're looking at, which is a little bit like del.icio.us.

The company is claiming this service has made the "e-mail this" option "obsolete," which I'd normally say is unfounded, except in this case, the service really does provide a much richer sharing tool than what you get with the common e-mail link. Often times when a friend or colleague sends me an article, it's just a URL, or worse--an attachment.

About the author

Josh Lowensohn joined CNET in 2006 and now covers Apple. Before that, Josh wrote about everything from new Web start-ups, to remote-controlled robots that watch your house. Prior to joining CNET, Josh covered breaking video game news, as well as reviewing game software. His current console favorite is the Xbox 360.
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